Green Revolution

Green Revolution refers to the transformation of agriculture that happened from 1950 to 1980. One significant factor in this revolution was government's request to establish an agricultural research station to develop more varieties of wheat that could be used to feed the rapidly growing population of the country. The Green Revolution allowed food production to keep up with world population growth. The world population has grown by about four billion since the beginning of the Green Revolution and many believe that, without the Revolution, there would have been greater famine and malnutrition.

The projects within the Green Revolution spread technologies that had already existed, but had not been widely used outside industrialized nations. These technologies included pesticides, irrigation system, synthetic fertilizer and improved crop varieties.

There are a number of reason forthis problem. While agricultural output increased as a result of the Green Revolution, the energy input to produce a crop has increased faster, so that the ratio of crops produced to energy input has decreased over time. Green Revolution techniques also heavily rely on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, some of which must be developed from fossil fuels, making agriculture increasingly reliant on petroleum products. It need more cost.
Green Revolution agriculture relies on extensive use of pesticides, which are necessary to limit the high levels of pest damage that inevitably occur in monocropping - the practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area.
Industrialized agriculture with its high yield varieties are extremely water intensive. In the world, agriculture consumes 85% of all fresh water resources. Also the water quality is being compromised. Fish are disappearing through another form of agricultural run off as well. When nitrogen-intensive fertilizers wash into waterways it results in an explosion of algae and other microorganisms that lead to oxygen depletion resulting in “dead zones”, killing off fish and other creatures.
The spread of Green Revolution agriculture affected both agricultural biodiversity and wild biodiversity. There is little disagreement that the Green Revolution acted to reduce agricultural biodiversity, as it relied on just a few high-yield varieties of each crop.

Finally, the Green Revolution has brought about social and political conflict that has interfered with food production. The problem lies in the cost of the new agricultural methods. Only the lager landowners can afford to make the necessary investment for maximum production of the new grains. With their profits, the large landowners then buy land from the smaller landowners. This way, the large landowners become ever richer and the number of landless poor peopleincreases. Social tensions naturally increase in this situation.

Green revolution has not only positive but also negative effect. Governments and farmers need to look at the overall picture and long-term effect. They need to find new methods that will better meet the needs of the world’s hungry people and will also be less destructive.